Morning all.
As the dust settles on our draw with Liverpool, I was chatting with the Mugsmasher and it was interesting to see his comments on the referee. As I wrote yesterday, I felt Paul Tierney let Liverpool make the kind of fouls we weren’t allowed to. For example, Ben White was booked in the first half, but Ibrahima Konate was allowed steam through Granit Xhaka without censure for what was, I think, more of a foul.
Just for the record, I have run that challenge through the super-computer, and it registered a 9.99999 on the ITWGX Scale©®. Can you imagine what would have happened if Xhaka, on a yellow card, had done the same thing? The second yellow would have come out quicker than Diogo Jota falls over at the slightest touch.
Anyway, the point is that as much as we were aggrieved with the refereeing, so too were the Liverpool fans who thought Tierney – with whom they have some history – was awful. In a game where they were awarded a penalty too. I don’t know exactly what it shows, other than football fans view games through their own specific lenses, and maybe it is a case that a referee can be terrible for both sides. Not always, obviously. Ask a Brighton fan and a Spurs fan about that this week and you might get a different answer, but quite often.
As the Mugsmasher said, “He’s probably just universally shite.”
He also mentioned Liverpool fans were frustrated with what they considered time-wasting and a bit of play-acting from Arsenal. My first instinct was defensive, because I do think there were some heavy challenges that weren’t properly dealt with by the referee. There was one where Gabriel Jesus took a proper whack to the ribs, and he definitely needed some treatment. The one where Gabriel Martinelli didn’t get a kick in the head even if Konate’s boot was a bit high, I think he just wanted to slow things down because it came just after their first goal.
We have experienced it ourselves this season on countless occasions. You’re trying to build up a head of steam and an opposition player goes down, perhaps with a ‘head injury’ which means the referee is obliged to stop play. Think of the Bournemouth game, when they did exactly that at the start of injury time, only for that stoppage to be added on to give us sufficient time to score the winner via Reiss Nelson. It is annoying when others do it, but I think it’s part and parcel of how Mikel Arteta is developing his team.
We think of game management as the sole preserve of the manager and his coaching staff, the changes they make from the bench, and to some extent that’s true. There are days when he can make changes which influence proceedings in a positive way, and other days where those decisions aren’t quite right. Sunday at Anfield was one of those, as discussed in the blog yesterday.
However, players can have an impact too. After Andy Robertson fired a shot wide in the 20th minute, Aaron Ramsdale required treatment. I’ve watched the replays again, and as far as I can see there’s nobody near him, and from the TV pictures it looks as if he’s saying he got something in his eye. Conveniently, that then allowed the outfield players to gather around Arteta on the sideline to get some instructions, and for him to offer some advice, tactical or otherwise. The fact is, a goalkeeper doesn’t have to go off the field if he gets treatment, so if you were to suggest this was a stoppage as a reaction to a moment where Liverpool had a moment of danger, I don’t think you’d be too far wide of the mark.
In Man City’s Amazon series, there’s a clip of Arteta instructing well-known hatchet-men Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and David Silva to make fouls if the opposition win the ball and look to transition.
The so-called ‘dark arts’ are part and parcel of the game whether we like it or not, and the best teams are the ones who usually apply them in the best way. It seems counter-intuitive, that sides who are filled with quality players – often man for man way better than the ones they’re facing – feel like they need to ‘resort’ to this stuff, but it’s what they do. Man City’s tactical fouling, Barcelona’s Busquets influence, Liverpool’s relentless physicality, they all do it.
And now we do too. I think it’s something we can get better at, and even if the purist in me wonders if the game might be better without it, it’s very much a case of stable door and bolted horse. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle (especially if he’s the size of a horse!). Go back to our last title winning side, and when people talk about the Invincibles they do so with a kind of reverence because of the achievement and how we played the game with the likes of Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Vieira etc. Make no mistake though, as much as this was Arsene Wenger’s finely constructed orchestra playing a wonderful tune, they could switch in an instant to thrash metal and brutalise you if they wanted.
Which is to say, I’m here for it. I suspect very strongly that we’ll have to apply these tactics, if you want to call them that, during the next eight games. Some people won’t like it, but if it gets us the points we need, you won’t hear any complaints from me.
Right, let’s leave it there for now. I think it might be another quiet week as we prepare for West Ham on Sunday, but let’s see.
More from me here tomorrow, and any breaking news we’ll cover on Arseblog News.
